Industry Briefs - 3-12-18

Industry Briefs are provided as a free service to our readers. Company news information may be sent to brice@slenterprise.com. The submission deadline is one week before publication.

BANKING

• Central Bank has announced several personnel changes. Matt Packard has served as bank president and CEO of Central Bank since 2001. As of this year, Packard has stepped down as bank president but retained the title of CEO. Packard has worked in the banking industry for over 42 years. Mark Packard has been promoted to president of Central Bank. He previously served as senior executive vice president. Mark Packard has worked in the banking industry for over 30 years, serving in several capacities. Jason Packard has been promoted to senior vice president. He will continue to serve as the bank’s office manager in Springville, an appointment he received in 2012. He has worked at Central Bank for 18 years. Ed Sanches has been promoted to senior vice president. He has been the office manager of Central Bank’s Orem office since 2010. Jeff Simonsen has been promoted to senior vice president. He previously served as office manager in both the bank’s Orem and Provo offices. Andrew Adams has been hired to serve as a senior loan officer at the bank’s Spanish Fork office. Adams has worked in banking for more than a decade.

• Bank of Utah has appointed Brian Young as area manager in the bank’s mortgage office in St. George. Young is an experienced banking area/division manager and has served more than 10 years in the mortgage industry. He is skilled in business relationship management and sales and has expertise in reverse mortgages. His most recent work experience includes positions as division manager for Patriot Home Mortgage and as an account manager for MGIC. He graduated from the University of Phoenix with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in accounting and finance.

CONSTRUCTION

• Hales Sand & Gravel has named Mike Lyman as construction manager. He will work from the company’s Richfield location. Lyman started his career with Valley Asphalt in 1998 and became part of the Staker Parson team in 2002 when US Aggregates was acquired by CRH. During his career, he has managed many large projects including I-15 Core, I-15 Point of the Mountain and Mountain View Corridor.

• Wally Cooper and Allen Roberts, founders of CRSA, have announced their retirement after 43 years in the architectural industry. CRSA was founded as Wallace Cooper Architects in 1975. Roberts joined Cooper’s firm in 1976, becoming a partner in 1984. Cooper/Roberts Architects was the first architecture firm in the Intermountain Region to specialize in preservation, restoration, and adaptive use of historic and existing buildings. The practice has grown to include more than 50 employees in three offices. As Cooper and Roberts become consulting advisors to CRSA, Ben Rogers, director of the St. George office, has stepped into the role as president, supported by Kathy Wheadon as senior vice president, Kelly Gillman as treasurer and Fran Pruyn as secretary.

CONTESTS

• Twenty teams have been selected to advance in the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, Utah’s largest collegiate entrepreneur competition. The teams are competing for over $100,000 in cash and prizes, including a $40,000 grand prize. The competition is managed by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, a division of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, and is sponsored by Zions Bank. The University of Utah has six teams competing, while Brigham Young University has five and Southern Utah University has two. Institutions with one team each are Dixie State University, Utah State University, Utah Valley University, Salt Lake Community College, Snow College, Weber State University and Westminster College. The next step will be online video voting, which is open to the public March 28-April 7, at http://lassonde.utah.edu/uec/vote2018. Top teams also advance to the final event, where they will meet for the last judging round and a public showcase and awards ceremony on April 7 at Lassonde Studios at the UofU. Details are at lassonde.utah.edu/uec.

EDUCATION/TRAINING

• A record 2,000 high school girls from across Utah participated in the recent SheTech Explorer Day, organized by the Women Tech Council. The day-long event at the Mountain America Expo Center was aimed at activating, engaging and inspiring the girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) through hands-on experience and mentoring. This year’s Explorer Day event paired girls with 700 mentors from 200 of Utah’s technology companies, including Adobe, Ancestry, AT&T, Cox Automotive, Dell EMC, Ivanti and Vivint Smart Home. Since launching in 2014, SheTech has motivated and inspired more than 12,000 girls throughout Utah to pursue STEM.

• The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is collaborating with Weber State University to offer a “mini-MBA” training course to business communities from Bountiful to Logan. The SBA Emerging Leaders Program is a federal training initiative that specifically focuses on executives of businesses poised for growth. The initiative provides business executives with the organizational framework, resource network and motivational support to build sustainable businesses and promote economic development within their communities. Over the course of seven months, program participants are given the opportunity to work with experienced mentors; attend specialized workshops; and develop connections with their peers, city leaders and the financial community. Recruitment for the Emerging Leaders program is underway and classes are scheduled to begin March 30. Participation is free. Details are available by emailing ian.lorenzana@sba.gov or calling (801) 524-3209.

• Salt Lake Community College’s Global Business Center is accepting registrations for its spring 2018 Executive Certificate of Global Business Management course. The registration deadline is March 21. The course is offered to business executives, marketing professionals, staff and entrepreneurs who want to increase their exporting knowledge and improve their strategies in global business practices. Classes will be Wednesday evenings March 28-May 30 at the Salt Lake Community College Miller Campus, 9690 S. 300 W., Sandy. The course is also available live to distance learning locations throughout Utah by using the Utah interactive UEN audio-video connection. Details are at https://mbrcslcc.com/departments/global-business-services/. Registration can be completed by contacting Stan Rees at stan.rees@slcc.edu or (801) 957-5336.

• Weber State University has named Brett Perozzi as vice president for student affairs. Perozzi came to WSU as an associate vice president for student affairs in 2007. He has served as the interim vice president since September following the retirement of vice president Jan Winniford. As associate vice president, his duties focused on the business operations that support students, leaving less time for direct interaction with students. During his time at Weber State, Perozzi has served in various leadership roles. He co-chairs the Student Success Steering Committee with provost Madonne Miner. The committee leads a university-wide effort to implement strategies to retain more students and help them graduate faster. Prior to joining WSU, Perozzi served as executive director of student engagement at Arizona State University and has worked at Indiana, Texas Tech and Colorado State universities.

ENERGY

• Evelar Solar, Salt Lake City, has hired Steve Roy as chief strategy officer and Jennifer Hurst as director of marketing. Roy has extensive experience in strategy development around customer experience, market expansion and building high-performing organizations. During his tenure with Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR), he evaluated over 900 startup companies and provided executive coaching, funding and pitch preparation and marketing analysis to propel innovative companies to market. More recently, he re-engineered the customer experience process for Vivint Solar. Hurst has more than 25 years of marketing and public relations experience. During her career, she has worked in real estate, technology, bio-tech and energy industries with companies including Energy Solutions, MarqMetrix and Rio Tinto/Kennecott Land.

• Crews from Cache Valley Electric and Wagstaff Crane have been working to install a light-emitting diode (LED) lighting system at Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City owns the stadium and is investing $630,000 to replace 342 obsolete metal halide lamps with 168 new LED bulbs. This change will reduce energy consumption and eliminate lighting maintenance costs. The current system was installed 25 years ago and had exceeded its original lifespan, causing lights to suddenly turn off in the middle of games. The new lights minimize glare and noise, illuminate brighter than the old lamps and require no time to warm up due to their efficiency. The system is expected to reduce energy consumption by 65 percent while saving money because of a 25-year warranty. The University of Utah has its home opener there March 23. The Salt Lake Bees open April 5.

GOVERNMENT

• Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski has signed a new Gender Pay Equity policy designed to eliminate systemic bias and discrimination that adds to the under-valuation of work performed by women. The policy prohibits individuals participating in city hiring processes from asking an applicant about their current or past salary history — an action considered to have been a cause of gender pay inequity.

• Louis Berger, based in New Jersey, has been selected to provide program management services for the North Concourse program at Salt Lake City International Airport. The program is part of the Salt Lake City International Airport Redevelopment Program, which Louis Berger has been involved with since 2013. Under the contract, Louis Berger is providing staff augmentation to the airport in several areas, including terminal redevelopment and concourse construction, delivery, baggage-handling systems planning, installation, commissioning and turnover, landside and airside utilities field engineering support, MEP systems planning, installation and commissioning, and subcontractor trade invoicing support. Louis Berger has 30 years of experience working in the aviation sector.

HEALTHCARE

• Alucent Biomedical Inc., a Salt Lake City-based biotechnology company, has appointed six people to its executive leadership team. Dr. Katalin Kauser, vice president of biology, joins the company with 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry with Global Blood Therapeutics, Boehringer Ingelheim, Actelion, and Bayer, specializing in cardiovascular biology, pharmacology and drug development. Bruce Krattenmaker, vice president of regulatory affairs, has more than 30 years of experience leading global regulatory and clinical affairs for startup and large medical device companies. He most recently served as vice president of global regulatory affairs for Allergan. Julie Logan, vice president of clinical affairs, has more than 20 years of experience in the interventional cardiovascular field conducting clinical trials on behalf of many startup medical device companies, developing cutting-edge cardiovascular products and performing complex coronary, vascular and structural interventions. Scott Mayfield, vice president of finance and administration, has more than 20 years of experience managing finance, accounting and human resources for CRBard and Boston Scientific and for growing life science companies, such as Catheter Innovations, InnerDyne, Perseon, and Catheter Technology Corp., funded by venture capital, private equity and angel investors. Jane Ren, vice president of research and development and chief technology officer, joins Alucent with 20 years of experience developing interventional medical devices and drug delivery technologies. Her previous positions included vice president at Boston Scientific and chief technology officer at CeloNova BioSciences. Kevin Warner, vice president of pharmaceutical development, joins Alucent Biomedical with 15 years of pharmaceutical development experience. He was most recently at Allergan Inc., where he held roles of increasing responsibility in pharmaceutical product development, including serving most recently as director of small molecule development.

• ProLung Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company focused on predictive analytics technology and non-invasive tests for the risk stratification of lung cancer, has appointed Andy C. Robertson as chief marketing officer. Before joining ProLung as vice President of marketing and business development in 2017, Robertson held marketing positions at Utah Medical Products, C.R. Bard, Becton Dickinson, Covidien (now Medtronic) and Megadyne. Robertson holds a bachelor of science in marketing degree from the University of Utah.

• Restore Cryotherapy Mountain West, a regional franchise for Restore Cryotherapy of Austin, Texas, is coming to Utah. The company’s first Utah center will open March 17 at 1202 E. Wilmington Ave., No. 130, in the Sugar House area. The company provides spa-based cryotherapy and treatments for hyper-wellness, chronic pain and injury recovery, anti-aging and optimal health.

HOSPITALITY/FOOD SERVICE

• AC Hotel Salt Lake City Downtown has hired Jared Steere as general manager of Marriott’s new 164-room hotel at 200 West and 200 South in Salt Lake City. Steere has nearly 15 years of experience in the hospitality industry, previously serving as the task force general manager for Lodging Dynamics Hospitality Group (LDHG). Prior to that, he was the general manager at the Marriott Residence Inn in Salt Lake City from 2009-2014. Steere graduated from Utah Valley University with a bachelor’s degree in hospitality administration and management.

• OakwoodLife, a division of Oakwood Homes, has announced SpringHouse Village at Daybreak, a 55-plus community in the Daybreak community. Sales for home sites will begin this spring. It will have more than 400 homes and is the inaugural 55-plus community for the company, with two more planned later this year in Colorado. The central activity center for SpringHouse Village will be The Spring House, an amenity-rich center that will offer classes and activities; a fitness center; movement studio; pickle ball and bocce ball courts; an outdoor pool and spa; and entertainment spaces indoors and out.

• ERA Real Estate, a global real estate franchisor, has named ERA Brokers Consolidated, a St. George-based company serving Utah and Nevada, as its national company of the year. The Gene Francis Memorial Award, given annually by ERA Real Estate to its top all-around company, was presented to ERA Brokers Consolidated at the 2018 ERA International Business Conference in February in Las Vegas. Factored into the award selection are high customer satisfaction ratings, strong brand engagement and use of ERA resources, and sales and company growth. Founded in 1982, ERA Brokers Consolidated operates eight offices across Utah and Nevada, has more than 300 sales associates and staff, and the combined operations closed nearly 3,000 transactions worth $732 million in value in 2017.

• The newly announced Axcend Focus LC liquid chromatograph from Axcend has won a Bronze Pittcon Excellence Award from Pittcon Today magazine in the under $10 million category. Pittcon Today is the official magazine of the Pittcon conference and exposition, an annual event for laboratory science. The award presented to Axcend was one of nine Pittcon Excellence Awards presented by Pittcon Today during Pittcon 2018. Award winners and finalists were selected from over 700 companies that exhibited at Pittcon 2018. The Axcend Focus LC is a toaster-sized, portable liquid chromatograph, a scientific instrument designed to detect the presence of organic compounds in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals manufacturing to food processing and from forensic chemistry to pollution detection.

RETAIL

• A new Verizon Wireless store will open April 5 on South State Street, Sandy, near Chipotle. The location is owned and operated by Victra, a retailer of wireless products and services for Verizon Wireless.

TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES

• Teem, a Salt Lake City-based developer of cloud-based meeting tools and workplace analystics, has hired four people for its marketing, sales and engineering departments. Scott Jensen, senior vice president of marketing, has over 18 years of experience. He previously served as senior vice president of marketing at TravelPASS Group. Ryan Anderson, vice president of product marketing, has several years of leadership experience in the commercial office furniture industry, most recently serving as director of commercialization and business development at Herman Miller. Jeremy Smith, senior director of engineering, previously was chief technology officer at SambaSafety. Blake Hunsaker, director of global sales, joins Teem from Pluralsight, where he spent the last four years, including overseeing the enterprise public sector business.

• AccessData Group, a Lindon-based provider of integrated digital forensics and e-discovery software, has appointed Rafik Hajem as vice president of sales for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Hajem is a veteran of the digital forensics and e-discovery software industries. For nearly five years, he has served in a variety of sales positions at Guidance Software and has more than 25 years of experience working with various technology companies throughout Europe. AccessData also announced the opening of a new regional office in Paris, where Hajem will be based. The Paris office becomes the third AccessData office in Europe.